The Courage Performance Blog

What will you do? Can you survive in any potential situation that may present itself? This is such a fun (and sometimes scary) thought process to have, trying to figure out what could potentially go wrong in life. An easy way to get started with it is to just call back all those Armageddon movies out there and think about what the hell you'd do if anything like that ever happened.

Nuclear attacks, tsunamis, meteors, hostile takeovers, terrorist attack, alien invasions, major economic crisis, floods, zombie epidemic (or more seriously, some form of major virus outbreak), etc. etc. What would you do? What if you get lost? In the woods, at sea, in the desert, hell, in a damn city (perhaps one where nobody speaks your language)? What kinds of experiences do you have physically, mentally, globally, nature-ly? Seriously, take a second and ask yourself if you'd survive in any given situation. It's really not all that far-fetched to think something pretty shitty could happen to us at any given moment. And, while I have no intention myself to live in fear of all things that could go wrong, I know it's worth a moment here and there to at least think about things and make sure I have the wherewithal to actually figure out what to do!

I hope to live a life that opens my mind to being able to do anything and survive anywhere and in any situation. And I want to do all of this with a smile on my face because the whole time I'll be following my dreams. When the shit hits the fan, I have a feeling that I'll be totally fine. I won't panic, I won't freak out or have no clue what to do. And that is the best way to live a life in my opinion.

Well, I've been reading up and following people who life their lives the way I am slowly figuring I want to live mine, and it's so incredibly motivating to see some of the things people do. Here's a list of a small collection of the stuff I've checked out over the past few weeks. I really recommend you take the time to check them all out. Share your thoughts!

After a bit of tumbling and stretching out yesterday I decided to hit the wilderness for a little fun today. I packed a couple sandbags (52# each), a couple kettlebells (70# and 62#), a sledge hammer (10#) and a weight vest (20#). I didn't really know what I was going to do, or where I was even going for that matter, i just hit the road. I headed out into the mountain between the Bay and the Pacific and right at the ridge a hung a left, headed South and into the ever-thickening wild. About 15 miles in, I hung a right and disappeared down a super narrow, very winding road. Another 8 miles or so and I spotting a tiny tail head, so I pulled in.

I got out, walked around a little and found the perfect spot! Just to the side of the trail head there was a bit of a clearing that led to a ledge that just dropped off into the woods. I had about a 30 meter, insanely steep hill to another clearing amongst the redwoods, I had a huge fallen tree about face height, I had a massive redwood stump and tons of awesome scenery! So I began brainstorming a workout.[video below!]

All of a sudden I remembered that my good buddy Blair Morrison of AnywhereFit had challenged all his readers to design a storyline workout. Basically a workout that could replicate a real-life scenario. And just like that my imagination began to run wild! Here is my story!

I am a farmer (slash master warrior!) in the 17th century living in my humble home with my two small children (the two sandbags). All of a sudden in the distance I see the evil villain of the area and his army of bandits charging my land prepared to steal all my food and goods and take my children away for slavery. I act quickly (being the battle-master that I am) and transition my children and weapons to my hidden safe-house. I throw on my body armor (the 20# vest) and high-tail it!

Run each piece of equipment up the steep hill one at a time (sandbags, kettlebells, hammer, or, children, cannonballs, sword!)

Once I'm in my safe-house I must load up my cannon and fire at the oncoming enemy!

60 kettlebell swings with the 70#

After I fire away, I then must navigate over to the alternate tower for a flank counter-attack.

10 climb overs and back under the fallen tree

Now that I get over to this even more hidden tower, I fload and fire my second cannon.

30 kettlebell snatches each arm with the 62#

Finally, realizing the enemy is too strong and determined to be fended off by my cannons, I must stand against them steel vs. steel. I draw my sword and attack for a final epic battle!

60 hammer strikes into the stump

Alrighty, so, anyone who has spent a decent amount of time with me probably knows that doing this sort of thing, alone, out in the woods, is pretty much what defines me. So, I got into character pretty seriously and just went after it! And in the end, was I able to save myself and my children from those crazy attacking scoundrels? Honestly, the way I felt after that workout, I either did so, JUST barely, or, I got crushed miserably! The kettlebell swings destroyed my back (I am assuming the run up the hill with the vest and the awkward weights tightened it up a bit to start) and I struggled through the entire thing. Finished in 25:18 (with a handful of camera moves throughout). Was an absolute blast and I look forward to seeing what other people come up with for this challenge!

Later on in the day I headed to the track with a handful CrossFit San Mateo athletes and did this little challenge:

I came in around 13:20 but I also was in the bathroom when the rest of the group started (Brednon said it was about 1.5 minutes or so before I actually got my start). Either way, it was a tough one but I feel as through it got my blood pumping perfectly. Now I plan plan to roll out and stretch a bit before ed and tomorrow it's time to hit Open Sectionals Workout #4 at Lalanne Fitness!